


c° " " * 







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SPEECH OE JOHN P. HALE 

ON THE STATE OP THE UNION, 
"fnuRSDAY, Januaey 31, 1861. 



Mr. HALE. Mr. President, I confess that I was a ^ood deal sur- 
prised at a remark which fell from the honorable Senator from Illinois, 
[Mr. Douglas,] in relation to a little passage that took place between 
the honorable Senator from Virginia [Mr. Maso.n] and myself yester- 
day. He said he was pained at the announcement made by the Senato^ 
from Virginia, and he was pained at the approbation expressed by the 
Senator from New Hampshire at the utterance of the sentiments that 
the Senator from Virginia pronounced. Now, Mr. President, I desire 
to call the attention of the Senate, and of that portion of the country 
that cares anything about what we say here, to what did take place 
■yesterday, because I stand by it, and I tliink if I could induce every 
member of this body, and every voter in this country, to stand by it, the 
difficulties that now envelop and surround us and the country would 
vanish like mist before the morning sua. I do not know, sir, what 
private interpretation tlie Senator from Virginia may have had, if he 
had any, of the sentiment which he expressed ; but the sentiment whieh 
he did express, and to which I gave my cordial assent, was, that with 
the Constitution of the United States he and the people that he repre- 
sented were satisfied ; that they asked no concession. I do not remem- 
ber his precise phraseology ; but I think he said it would be dishonorable 
in them to ask, and degrading in us to make, any concession ; what they 
wanted was the Constitution. 

Mr. MASON. Will the Senator a!lo;v me an instant? 

Mr. HALE. Yes, sir. 

Mr. MASON. V/hat I said, Mr. President, was not what was re- 
peated by the Senator from Illinois. I understood the Senator from 
Illinois to say that I had disclaimed' any demand on the part of the 
southern States for "conciliation, or concession, or compromi-^e. 

Mr. DOUGLAS. For concession. 

Mr. MASON. It was limited to the word " concession.'" 

Mr. HALE. So it v/as. 

Mr. MASON. And it was because that was the only term that had 
been used by either of the Senators from Pennsylvania, audit wa>? a term 
I said that had become familiar as a houseiiold word. 'T^'\ig Vvv-'papers 



■ Hik> 

and letter writers speak of the non-slaveholding States, or some of them, 
being ready to make concessions. What I meant to say was this — ap- 
plied to tiiat term which has its own specific meaning: so far as I know, 
the South ask no concession, because a concession would imply a gra- 
tuity or a benevolence to which they were not entitled. I said that the 
South were sati>fied with the Constitution as it stood; if its guarantees 
had been respected, but not being respected, we should demand such 
securities, in place of existing guarantees, as would be beyond dispute. 
Now I will instance one — one of the class presented in the speech of ray 
honorable colleague. There is a security, leaving to the minority sec- 
tion its own protection by a concurrent vote on all questions affecting its 
interests. 1 instance that only as one of a class which might be resorted 
to; but my remarks were confined to that word "concession," and I did 
say that if we could ask concessions, it would be humiliating in us to 
ask them, and derogatory to the other side to grant them. 

Mr. HALE. My recollection and the record concur entirely with the 
exposition which the honorable Senator from Virginia has now given 
of what he said, with a single exception. I will read what the Senator 
said : 

" We would never ask for concessions in any form. It has been the 
' uniform language of the southern States here, through their representa- 
'tives, so far as Tknow, that they are perfectly satisfied witli the Consti- 
' tution ; they have no complaint to make of the Constitution. Their 
'complaint is, that the Constitution has been violated and disregarded, 
'to the prejudice of the rights secured to them by the Constitution." 

That is what the Senator said. He was satisfied with the Constitu- 
tion yesterday, without an " if;" and I am sorry — perhaps it was owing 
to the hurry with which the Senator spoke — that he put in the " if " to- 
day. Again, he said : 

"We ask for no concession. We should be humiliated if we did ask 
'it; and they would be humiliated if they granted it. We ask for no 
' concession ; we ask only for right. We are asking for no new provis- 
'ions whatever." 

This is what pleased me yesterday ; it pleases me to-day ; and I think 
the honorable Senator from Illinois cannot have his moral and physical 
nature in a normal condition if it gives him pain to hear this expressioa 
of reverence for the Constitution, and of satisfaction with its provisions, 
pronounced by the honorable Senator from Virginia, and accorded to 
by myself. 

Sir, from the very announcement of this controversy, one thing has 
struck me, and I will now state it to the Senate. We meet together 
here, and it is agreed upon all hands that something is out of joint, 
have b«en m^; by volunteer committees on the street, that they tell me 



they come to appeal to me, and to ask that I will give my humble aid to 
settle the question. " Well," I say, " my friends, if you will tell me 
what the question is, I will help you with all my heart ;" and I ask what 
the question is now? It is not dissatisfaction with the Constitution. 
The honorable Senator from Missouri [Mr. Green] made the same 
avowal some days, possibly some weeks, since. The Constitution is 
well enough ; and yrt, sir, this Congress meets; the country is distracted, 
and you all go to work to patch on amendments to that which you agree 
is now perfect. 

I say we present a curious spectacle. Everybody — no, not everybody, 
but a great many people are finding fault. We come together, and men 
want to cure the evil by mending and patching that which they all agree 
needs no mending, and which is in itself perfect. 

Again, sir : of what do you complain? For what are you going to 
break up this Government? Do you complain of its administration here 
by the two Houses ot Congress and the Federal President? Why, sir, 
it was the declaration of one of the representatives of the seceding States, 
[Mr. Toombs,] on this floor last session, that in the main, from the time 
of the adoption of the Federal Constitution to the present time, the 
Federal Government had been honestly administered according to the 
purposes of the Constitution ; and never more so than at the present 
time. 

Then, sir, you have got a perfect Constitution, and a perfect adminis- 
tration of it by its organs. How is its judiciary? Do you find any 
fault with it? Has there been any exposition of the Federal Constitu- 
tion by the chosen arbiters that are to decide what the Constitution is, 
that displeases you ? Is there any fault found with that ? None that I 
have ever heard of. Well, then, sir, the Constitution perfect, the legisla- 
tion perfect, and the judiciary perfect, \That do you find fault with? 
Is there anything in the constitution of any one of the States? I have 
not heard it suggested. It was stated by the same authority to which I 
have just referred, that the judiciary of all the States, with the solitary 
exception of the State of Wisconsin, had been sound and faithful in 
their construction of the fugitive slave law. 

Then, sir, if you have got a perfect Constitution, a perfect adminis- 
tration of it by the Federal Governra'jnt, and a perfect (as you regard it) 
construction of it by the Federal and State judiciary, what do you want? 
If you want anything furtlier in a judicial line, I have no doubt you can 
have it wlien you make a case. T!ae honorable Senator from Oregon 
[Mr. Lane] the other day said he had no doubt — I do not know whether he 
meant it as a compiiment or a reproach to the Supreme Court of the 
United States— that if a proper case could be made out and submitted to 



that court, they wouliJ decide that the electioo of Mr. Lincoln was un- 
constitutional. 

Mr. LANE. Or any other honest court. 

Mr. HALE. No matter about that ; I am not dealing with '• any 
other honest court" — only with one. I speak of that only to show what 
the honorable Senator from Oregon thinks on this matter, and no Sen- 
ator rose in his place to question his statement. It may have been meant 
for a compliment [to that court: I confess I think it a reproach. I re- 
member hearing a piquant anecdote related by an honorable gentleman 
from New York, once a member of this body — I will give his name — 
Mr. Dickinson. Mr. Dickinson said that, on a certain occasion, there 
was a minister settled in one of the small towns of the State of New 
York, and the terms of his payment were so many bushels of rye, pro- 
vided his preaching suited. He preached some time without getting any 
substantial evidence that his preaching was satisfactory ; and he went to 
some of the brethren, and said, "Brethren, doe.s my preaching suit ? If 
it don't, I can alter it, for I am determined to have that rye anyhow.*' 
[Laughter.] Well, sir, I think if you have not got any judicial decision 
that suits yet you can have it. The Senator from Oregon thinks so. 
We agree there. 

Then what is the matter? I know it is a very easy thing to repent of 
other men's sins, and to make confessions for other men's faults, and we 
have had a great deal of that piety on tiie other side of the Cham.- 
ber 

Mr. SAULSBURY. I a-^k the honorable Senator from New Hamp- 
shire how he knows that I'act? 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from New Hamp- 
shire yield the floor? 

Mr. HALE. I do not yet. I have yielded too often. I have no 
more concessions to make on that subject. [Laughter.] I say, Mr. 
President, we have had a great many confessions made upon the other 
side of the Chamber, of moral and political delinquencies that have 
been committed, but they have been Democrats confessing Republican 
sins ! We ha^e not heard a v/ord of any of their own shortcomings 
from their lips. They have been all pointing out wherein we have 
erred and sinned, and have never given the slightest attention to, nor made 
the least inquiry, so iar as any public manifestation is concerned, nor 
expressed a doubt as to the propriety, the perfect propriety, of their own 
conduct. 

Now, in regard to this matter of amending the Constitution, I appeal 
to you. Senators ; I ask you if, in the present state of public opinion, sur- 
rounded as you are by all the excitf ments and pass'ons of the honr. you 



believe that this Congress, this Senate, constituted as it i«!, made up as 
it is, operated upon by these adverse and extraneous influences as it is» 
is more competent and better able to build a Constitution that shall 
endure, and that shall promote the interest, the honor, and the welfare 
of this great country, than was the convention that formed the Federal 
Constitution ? I ask the wise men who sit around me. and whose patriot 
hearts are now beating with so much anxiety for the welfare of their 
country, how much de you think your wisdom exceeds that of the sages 
who formed this great charter of your Government, under which you live? 
How much wiser are you than Madison and Hamilton and Jay ; or how 
much more patriotic than Washington and his compatriots, that you 
undertake, in your madness and folly, to rebuild and reconstruct that 
great result of their piety and their wisdom, which has come to us as 
the richest inheritance that we have enjoyed ? Sir, I confess for myself 
that I am willing to abide with the old men of the Constitution ; I am 
willing to take my lot with those who, when the wounds of the Revolu- 
tion were not yet healed, met in solemn council, with patriotic hearts 
and pious purposes, came together to form a constitution for this country. 
I venerate their wisdom above that of the wisdom by which I am sur- 
rounded. I have not yet become a convert to the doctrine that we (if 
we ever could) are now in a situation to mend what they made. And, 
sir, if this sentiment gives pain to anybody, I regret it ; but I tell you I 
think it is a wholesome pain that will work out a regeneration of the 
body that feels it. 

Mr. President, there is another mistake, and it is a great mistake. 
Men speak of this Constitution and this Union as something separate 
from the battles by which our liberties were won. I have heard it said 
on this floor this session, that it is all a mistake to say that this Consti- 
tution cost any blood or any treasure. I tell you, sir, the Revolu- 
tion itself was worth nothing without the constitutional Union that 
followed it, and you cannot separate the one from the other. They 
are connected by one gieat chain, and the experience of the men 
of the Revolution between the peace of 1783 and the adoption of 
the Constitution in 1789, the history of that time standing where 
all nations may read, and all time cannot efface, demonstrate this truth 
that they found that the Revolution itself was but a bootless effort, un- 
less its fruits were cemented and consolidated in a Federal Union ; and 
the Federal Union was the necessary complement to the successful Rev- 
olution ; and the man that raises a parricidal hand against the Consti- 
tution of his country aims it not at the Constitution alone, but at the 
revolutionary and ante-revolulionary spirit that preceded in the coun- 
cils of the country years and years ago. 



6 

Sir, the Constitution was no thing of a day. It was not a hot-bed 
plant, growing up, like Jonah's gourd, in the night ; but it was the result 
of influences that had been operating in nearly the two centuries of colo- 
nial history that preceded it, and centuries back in the history of the 
country from which we emigrated ; and to undertake to separite the Con- 
stitution from the Revolution, the Union from the independence, what- 
ever you raay say about if theoretically, is a practical absurdity. 

Sir, the best hopes of mankind are freighted in this [ship of the Con- 
stitution. All that was secured by the war of the Revolution is periled 
by every blow that is aimed at the Constitution. I have sometimes 
thought, when I have heard the recklessness with which men speak of 
breaking up this Confederacy, of an incident that I have seen recorded 
in some magazine, respecting an aeronaut who ventured to rise to the 
blue ether above in a balloon. When he had ascended to where the earth 
faded in the distance to a mere point, he found that his companion was 
a maniac. Carried away by the giddy excitement of the hour, the un- 
happy man began to throw over the ballast, and cut the guys and the 
ropes by which the balloon was guided through its course; and the aero- 
naut found that his destinies were linked with those of a madman. Sir, 
that is our condition to-day. We are sailing over tempestuous seas; and 
all of human hope for ourselves, for our posterity, or for the world, is 
with us; for the men that will destroy the vessel in which so much is 
embarked are no better than the madman sailing in mid-air, who would 
lose all direction and control of the balloon which bore him. 

But, sir, perhaps I ought not to speak ; I am trespassing ; I have no 
business to speak. New England is to be sloughed off anyhow; she is 
a sore; and even the kind and benignant Senator from Missouri, [Mr. 
Green,] whose heart is all benevolence, so full that it beams out in 
every expression of his countenance, could not give utterance to his 
sentiments without expressing the hope that, whatever reconstruction 
might take place. New England would be left out anyhow. Well, sir, 
I will tell you this: I never will beg for myself, nor for my State, nor 
for New England, for admission to any communion except the com- 
munion of the just made perfect in Heaven ; and if there be on this 
earth a State, or a confederacy, now existing or hereafter to be formed, 
that can dispense with New England, I say " God bless you.'- If you 
can afford it, I think we can. Why, sir, these gentlemen do not know 
anything about New England except that there are ice and rocks there; 
that, I think, is the extent, the practical extent, of the knowledge of a 
great many of those men who talk about New England. I hope my 
colleagues from New England, who sit all around me, will forgive me 
if I say a word for her. Do you know anything of her history? Her 



cradle was the bark, rocked on the tempest, that finally landed amid the 
ice and rocks of Plymouth harbor. Her home was amid the savage^ 
and the rocks and the ice; and when she found the soil too sterile for 
sustenance, she plowed the ocean, and thence dug the means of support. 
She has grown up against opposition ; on her side she has had nothing 
but God. The mother country, from which she emigrated, oppressed 
her ; she contended with savages, with wild beasts, with a sterile soil 
and severe climate; death took half the numbers of the little company 
of emigrants that landed on that ice and rock-bound shore; yet, amid 
all these discouragements, and against all these odds, she has gone on 
every day and every year, prospering and to prosper. Cut her off, throw 
her away, and then she may look over this whole continent — nay, sir, 
she may go to your cotton fields and point to the means by which she 
has been instrumental in so highly elevating cotton, that, from the giddy 
height, you proclaim him king. She may tell you that without the 
genius of New England, King Cotton would be a beggar. She may 
point the continent over, and with more than poetic truth ask, Quce regio 
in terris non nostri ple7ia laboris ? 

What laud is there on this continent that has not been enlightened by 
her civilization ? What institution of learning is there that does not 
receive culture from her sons ? What is the great Northwest from which 
she is to be separated ■? Nothing on earth but New England spread 
out. I suppose, sir, that if you are going to cut her off and send her 
home, you will cast away everything that she has done. Well, sir, let 
the magician, with his talisraanic wand, go forth ; let him touch this 
Union ; let him touch this confederation ; nay, sir, let him touch that 
other confederation, who think they are beginning to see the light; and 
let him make everything that New England genius and New Erigland 
enterprise has done for them vanish from their presence, and they will 
find themselves but little advanced from the savage state. You are going 
to cut us off from the Northwest ! Good-by, my friends ; but ere you go, 
give us back our jewels; and when you take Illinois into your embrace, 
let us have the illustrious Senator [Mr. Douglas] and his " great prin- 
ciple," for he came from New England, and his colleague also. Sir, 
when you turn out Ohio, the empire of the West, give us back her thun- 
dering orator who sits before me, [Mr. WauL;] and her more than orator, 
sage, and patriot, that is to be his colleague in the next Congress, [Mr. 
Chase,] if such a Congress is to be. You are to take Michigan, too ! 
Sir, I have been many years a member on this floor, and I have always 
been able to recognize a son of New Hampshire in the representation of 
the State of Michigan. Look all over the West, and I tell you, sir, un- 
til the sons of the West have forgotten to reverence the graves of their 



8 

fathers ; until they have forgotten to cherish with affection the memory 
of the mothers that nourished them, you cannot sever New England 
from the West. Build up as many confederacies as you may ; and I tell 
you, sir, that when the politicians come to deal with this matter, they 
will find that the^people of this country have got a heart, which very few 
politicians have, [laughter;] and the great heart of the great West will 
be felt. 

Now, sir, another word in this connection. The honorable Senator 
from Virginia said the other day that this Union is already dissolved, 
and we cannot help it. I tell him the Union is not dissolved, and he 
cannot dissolve it. I am not going to discuss either riie right or the fact 
of secession. The'British empire existed after the American colonies 
were severed from it ; and when you have cut off from this Union 
every State that wants to go, and everybody that is not satisfied with 
the Constitution forswears his allegiance to it and leaves it, there will be 
left then a Union stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, strong 
enough to bid defiance to the world in arms, and deal with any question 
that presents itself just exactly as their own sense of patriotism and 
duty shall require of them. A man that has his leg amputated is a man 
notwithstanding; and the Union still remains, tliough some members ol" 
it may be cut off. 

I have in my hand a document to which I want to call the attention 
of some gentlemen. It has been the constant effort of very many gen- 
tlemen who have spoken upon this subject to represent that there is a 
very deep-rooted hatred between the North and the South ; and that 
this manifests itself on almost every occasion. I hold in my hand a 
most significant report made by the city of Portsmouth, in the State of 
Virginia, giving the history of the pestilence that visited that unhappy 
city in tiie year 1855. I will not stop to read that report ; but in it tiie 
committee of the city of Portsmouth say that, when the terrible pesti- 
lence visited Virginia, and death was holding such a festival there a.s 
had rarely been witnessed on this continent or anywhere else, the inhab- 
itants of that stricken city made an appeal not to the South, nor to the 
North, but to the country, the whole country; and it was responded to 
in a manner most honorable to humanity, and most honorable to the 
character of liie political institutions under which we live. Physicians, 
who knew that they were traveling the highway of death, where pes- 
tilence was to be their entertainment and death their reward, fiockcd in 
numbers from the North to minister relief to tiie inhabitants of that 
city ; contributions came in from every quarter; and they specially 
mention, among those who had been foremost in their deeds of benevo- 
lence, Philadelphia, Boston, and other places in tlie northern States, 



whose people, it has been said oa this floor this session, hate the South 
with a hatred deep as hell. According to a table which I have here of 
the contributions which they received upon this appeal, amounting to 
nearly ninety thousand dollars, ^G,000 of which was contributed by the 
District of Columbia ; of the remaining .^80,000, more than one half 
of it was contributed by the citizens of these very free States who, you 
say, entertain such deep-rooted hatred for you ! 

Sir, when the angel of pestilence spread his wing over your land ; 
when the young men were falling, and the Macedonian cry for help 
went up, did the North hold back ? No, sir ; but with a generosity and 
devotion, uncalculating as the impulses of humanity ever are, they went 
to the rescue of this very Virginia, and left their ashes upon its soil, 
eternal monuments of the sympathy, the humanity, and ttie afifection 
which they cherished for the citizens of a common country. And, sir 
whenever an occasion like that shall come again ; whenever war, pesti- 
lence, or anything else, shall indicate to your fellow-men, and citizens of 
the northern States, that a call is made upon them for sympathy, for 
aid, for money, for life, it will be poured out with as uncalculating a 
devotion as ever humanity laid its offering upon the altar of charity. 

And now, sir, while I am up, let me say that when I declare myself to 
be for the Constitution, I speak it in no sense that would indicate that 
I mean by that to invoke, or evoke, its strong arm, to put down by force 
any of the manifestations of disaffection which have been exhibited in 
any quarter of this country. No, sir ; I am for it in the spirit in which 
it was formed ; I am for the whole of it, in every part ; and let me here 
say a word or two, in regard to those special matters which have ob- 
truded themselves upon our attention. 

What is it that you want? You want a guarantee that this General 
Government never will interfere in anymanner with slavery in the States. 
Sir, it is not in human language to give it to you stronger than you have 
it now. You may make it just as strong as you please, and I defy the 
philology of the most learned and the most astute to put any guarantee 
in the Constitution so strong as you have it now in that provision which 
says that everything that is not given and granted by the Constitution 
is reserved to the people and the States. The right to abolish slavery 
in the States not being given, it is expressly reserved by this very pro- 
vision 

And, sir, you want the Missouri compromise restored. That Missouri 
compromise is a very curious measure. It saved the Union in 1820 by 
being passed ; it saved it in 1854 by being repealed ; and now it has to 
save it again by being passed again. How long it will be before it will 
have to be reversed, I da not know; but this Missouri compromise is 



10 

the eternal, unfailing medicine that is to cure all the diseases to which 
the body politic is subject. I remember a quack doctor in my neighbor- 
hood that had but oue medicine, and he u:>cd it just as you propose to 
use this Missouri compromise. When he wanted a medicine to produce 
one effect, he scraped it down the tree, and when he wanted to produce 
another, he scraped it up. [Laughter.] That is just exactly the casein 
which you put this Missouri compromise. Sometimes the Union is in 
danger, and you must pass it. Then it is in danger again^ and it must 
be repealed. Six years after, it is in danger again, and you must pass it. 
How long do you suppose the Union will last patched up in this manner, 
if the Missouri compromise, first up and then down, is the only medicine 
that it is ever to have ? 

Again, sir, I ask, what do you want? Do you want anything more 
than what you have got? You have got the whole, and we have not 
asked you to give anything back. The Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott 
decision, have decided all that you want. I will tell you what they say; 
perhaps you have forgotten. They say in so many words — I do not know 
that I can read it; but you will find it theie — that the only power that 
js conferred on this Federal Government in relation to slavery in the 
Territories, is the power, coupled with the duty, to protect it in the Ter- 
ritories. That is the supreme law of the land, pronounced by the Supreme 
Court of the United States, for which you all have so much reverence. 
Gentlemen, I appeal to you 

Mr. CLINGMAN. Will the Senator allow me to ask him a single 
question in this connection? 

Mr. HALE. Not now. The Senator can get the floor right after 
me. 

Mr. CLINGMAN. Will the honorable Senator adopt that construc- 
tion of the law and the Constitution. 

Mr. HALE. Mr. President, I will say this: there is a vacancy on 
the bench of the Supreme Court; and if Mr. Lincoln should nominate 
me to that place, and the Senate should confirm me, then I wUl tell you, 
[laughter;] and then my opinion will be worth something. But, sir, 
the opinions of the Supreme Court do not depend on the question whether 
I adopt them or not ; and I think the honorable Senator from North 
Carolina never would go home and tell his people, " My friends, this is 
all a sham. This Dred Scott decision is not worth a straw. It does 
not protect your property ; for I, myself, put it to Mr. Hale in the 
Senate, and he would not tell whether he considered it binding or 
not." Now, sir, that is tke law. I know that is the judgment pro- 
nounced ; and I tell you, gentlemen — 1 am talking plainly, and I trust 
not unkindly — you are not backing your friends as you ought to do, by 



11 

intimating that the decisions of the Supreme Court want any bolstering 
up here by acts of Congress. If any member of the bar of that Supreme 
Court should be found in the Court giving utterance to the expression 
of such an opinion as that, that one of their decisions needed the sanc- 
tion of this Congress, I am not sure that he would not be dealt with for a 
contempt. He certainly ought to be. Then, sir, you do not want any confir- 
mation of this opinion from Congress. Do you want to give us anything? 
We do not want it. Do you want to concede to us anything? Do you 
want to give anything that you have got? You have got the whole. 
Keep it. Make the most of it. You have got it in the most solemn 
form in which you ever can get it ; and if you are to get it by an act of 
Congress on the top of that decision of the Supreme Court, I tell you, 
you weaken rather than strengthen your title. Then you have got the 
General Government; you have got Congress; you have got the Su- 
preme Court; you have got every State court except the court of Wis- 
consin; and you have got everything on earth that you want, except one 
thing ; and that you are trying to get. It has come to that at last. You 
are trying to bring the majority under the minority; and I do not know 
but you will de that. If you do, it will be done by way of compro- 
mise. 

Now, sir, let me say that I think, when I express my reverence for the 
Constitution, and my willingness to abide by it, and the whole of it, in 
every part and particle of it, I do, at least prima facie, give some evi- 
dence to the world that I am a Union-loving man. I tell the Senator 
from Illinois, he ought not to be shocked— and I think he does violence 
to his moral nature in allowing himself to be shocked— when the hon- 
orable Senator from Virginia gets up and speaks in commendation of 
the Constitution ; and I give it my assent. So far from being shocked, 
I was rejoiced at it. I was rejoiced that the Senator from Virginia gave 
utterance to those sentiments; and I accord with them to the fullest ex- 
tent. 

But, now, as I see I have— what I do not often have— the ear of the 
honorable Senators from the State of Virginia, I would, if it be not 
arrogant, speaking here for my country, address a single word to-day to 
the great State of Virginia. Against the advice of some friends with 
whom I usually sympathize and generally follow, I was pleased that the 
State of Virginia had instituted and organized a meeting of commis- 
sioners to meet in this Federal Capital, on the 4th of the next month, 
to advise about matters relating to the common welfare. I should have 
been a little better pleased— but I was not consulted about that— if the 
time had been put off a little longer, a few days, so that we'might have 
had a little more time for consultation. I was pleased, too, that Virginia 



12 

had not yet forgotten all the ties that bound the old thirteen States 
together. I was pleaded that her mission was sent out not only to the 
slaveholding but to the non-slavcholding States, and that they were all 
invited to come. I will say here, what has not yet transpired to the 
public, and perhaps is of very little interest to the public, that when the 
announcement was made on this floor that the State of Virginia had 
initiated this measure, I, in consultation with ray colleague, and our 
colleagues in the other House, joined in an earnest recommendation to 
the Governor of the State of New Hampshire, asking him to send com- 
missioners to meet those who would be sent from the other States, 
telling him it was our opinion, upon the best consultation we could 
have in the short time allowed us, that such a measure as that would be 
salutary in its consequences. What effect that advice may have upon 
his excellency, the Governor of New Hampshire, I know not. Perhaps 
he may not feel authorized to take that responsibility in the absence of 
the Legislature. 

But, sir, if there be a State in this Union that has more than any 
other State at issue, in the discussions which are passing to-day on the 
question which now agitates this couutry, it is the State of Virginia. I 
am willing to do justice everywhere, to everybody ; and I recognize 
that it was Virginia whose philosophic statesman portrayed to the eyes 
of heaven and earth the story of our rights and wrongs in the Declara- 
tion of Independence with an eloquence rarely equaled, never equaled 
since He spake as never man spake. I recognize that it was a chosen 
son of Virginia who. by his patience, prudence, and his valor, led our 
armies through the war of the Revolution ; and after all the victories 
which he had ga'ned over the foes of his country had given him a place 
in the annals of time second to no man, he won a greater victory than 
all that, over himself, when he laid down the insignia of military au- 
thority and bowed in humble submission to the foot of the civil power. 
I recognize all that ; and I know further, that among the illustrious men 
whose valor won and whose wisdom preserved, by the consolidation of 
the Constitution, the liberties of this country, there is another honored 
name, an ancestor of the honorable Senator from Virginia. Sir, I wish, 
as long as time lasts, that the fame of Virginia may be illustrated by no 
less illustrious names than that which is worn by the distinguished Sen- 
ator from Virginia [Mr. Mason.] If he does not always speak the senti- 
ments which best accord with my own, if his manner to an unsophisti- 
cated man, not accustomed to it, sometimes savors a little — I will not 
say of plantation manners, because I was on a plantation once, and I 
know tlie kindness of their manner— but if his manner does sometimes 
'ndicate to an unsophisticated observer that Virginia is not a State, but 



THE State of the Union, and He her repTosentative, I forgive it all, be- 
cause I can never obliterate from my heart the recollection of that debt 
of gratitude which I, in common with all of us, owe to Virginia. 

But I tell you. Senators from Virginia, if I am not trespassing on the 
proprieties of this place, all the fame that yeur glorious ancestors have 
won for your glorious State, all the glorious memories of the great men 
that have illustrated your history,will gooutin that eternal darkness which 
shall shroud the liberties of this Republic, if Virginia leads or follows in 
this raid of secession. I tell you, sir, the liberties of this country, for 
weal or for woe, depend upon the conservation of this Union. The 
very preservation of its liberties depends upon the conservation of this 
Union ; and that great sentiment, so eloquently and so ably pronounced 
by a distinguisked Senator from Massachusetts — not now on this floors 
or among the living — oi " Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now 
and forever," is as true now as it was then. It was true then ; it is true 
in the present ; and it will be true in the coming future. 

1 have trespassed upon the Senate longer than I meant to do ; but 1 
cannot close without making one more appeal — an appeal to every man 
that values liberty, to dispel from his imagination forever the idea that 
liberty is to be sought in the separation and secession of these States. 
I see the impatience of my friend from Texas, [Mr. Wigfall.] He is 
impatient that my poor voice may be hushed, and that he may be per- 
mitted to illuminate this Chamber with the radiance of the Lone Star 
from Texas. He shall have the floor soon. But I tell you, gentlemen of 
the seceding States, your history is written. It wants no prophet to 
proclaim it. It is written. Do you ask where? In the history of the 
RepuUics of Mexico and South America. Go there, sir, and you will 
read it to-day. Ten years hence, you may read it, rewritten, on other 
pages ; the story the same, the name only changed. 

Now, sir, let me say a word in behalf of myself personally, in regard 
to this matter. I feel a degree of personal responsibility in connection 
v/ith this subject. I am ready to concede everything that is consistent; 
and if " concede" is not the word, give me the word and I will use it. 
I am willing to do everything that is consistent with my moral duty and 
with a patriotic desire to serve my country, and serve it faithfuliy.|but 1 
tell you, sir, the difficulty does not lie there. Madness rules the hour. 
Reason is subverted ; passion triumphant. What do we want, then ? 
We want time, that is all. We waat a little of the healing influence^ 
of time, and we want to appeal to that sober second thougiit of the 
people of this whole Union, which a distinguished statesman of other 
days said was always right. We want to wait for that, and let thai 
come in. and settle that which we, in this hour of passion, are not com- 



14 

petent to do. If there are those of these States that cannot, and will 
not, be satisfied, in God's name, let them go. I tell you, sir, the Union 
will be preserved nevertheless. Its stars and stripes shall still float in 
the valleys and over the mountain tops. True hearts shall rally around 
it. It shall preserve the literature, the learning, the liberty, and the 
religion of the land ; and when you that have gone off, like the prodigal 
son, in the far country, filling your belly with the husks which the swine 
do eat, turn at last to this Union, then, sir, and not until then, will we 
kill the fatted calf, and rejoice that the lost is found and the dead alive 
again. [Applause in the galleries.] 



16 



Extracts from the Report of the Portsmouth Relief Association 
to the Contributors for the Relief of the Sufferers from Yellow 
Fever in the Town of Portsmouth, during the Epidemic of 
1855. 

" It is impossible to realize what measure of distress the dire calamity 
which befel our town would have inflicted upon her inhabitants, with- 
out the timely aid so abundantly poured in upon us by friends every- 
where. Their generous contributijons alone afforded the means of keep- 
ing gaunt famine from our midst, and enabled us to supply food to 
appease the pangs of hunger, which otherwise could not have been 
alleviated." 

" How sublime a eulogium on the character of our institutions and 
our people, did this spontaneous outpouring of benevolence in behalf of 
a plague-stricken city, present ! The citizens of every section of our 
country — the old and the young, as well as little children — people of all 
shades of politics and religion, simultaneously and without concert, 
joined in the holy charity which was to furnish food and comfort to a 
dying community ! When our wants became known — and they were 
by no means ie-w^ or small — there was not a day on which supplies of 
money, provisions, medicines, and necessaries of all kinds, were not 
flowing in upon us." 

"Assistance was not alone furnished us in provisions and money. 
When th§ call for personal help went forth, our cries were heard and 
nobly responded to. Intelligent and philanthropic physicians, kind and 
skillful nurses, and gentle, sympathizing women flocked to our relief. 
They knew the danger they were about to encounter, but that did not 
cause them to hesitate. Intent only in ministering to the wants of sick 
and suff'ering humanity, all thought of danger to self was discarded, and 
vigorously and nobly did they battle with the plague-fiend — s:me to fall, 
to rise no more until the sounding of the last trump ! Martyrs to hu- 
manity I^Exemplars of heroism ! They fell more nobly than if cut 
down on the battle-field amid the pomp and circumstance of war. No 
martial strains or loud huzzas cheered them in their labors. Nothing 
but^the shrieks of the suffering and the groans of the dying saluted 
their ears. Noiselessly and without applause, save that afforded by a 
consciousness of their holy mission, they followed in the track of tke 
pestilence, rendering all the aid to its victims which an arduous course 
of theory had placed at their comraaad." 



\ 



^ 



16 

HECAPITULATIO.X. 



Maine 

New Hampsliirc 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island . - 

Connecticut 

New York 

New Jersey - 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland 

District of Columbia 

Virginia 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Mississippi - 

Louisiana 

Florida 

Texas 

Kentucky 

Indiana 

Missouri 

Miscellaneous 



Expended by Mr. Watts 



3758 00 
, 50 00 


5,608 47 
704 66 


350 03 


20,094 90 


1,500 77 


12,877 74 


1,229 60 

679 79--'= 


6,863 09 


21,216 22 


6,790 42 


1,635 98 
227 66 


73 66 


50 00 
COO 83 


160 00 


50 00 


GO 00 


3 00 


924 47 
. 3,258 34 


86,067 03 
747 00 



$85,320 63 

* This sum is •■xclusive of provit.ions aniouming to thousaiuls of dollars, which were 
received irom Baltimore. Provisions were also received from Richmond. Pet*>r'bur.^. ani! 
other localities, tiie amount of which i» uukuow:!. 



rolkinhcrn's Steam PrinttDg OflSce, D street, bet. Clh k 7th sts. 



.^ 



558 



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